Of course, you have to modulate that by the possibility that allowing people to live off their UBI or blow it on frivolous spending will cancel out those good effects. That question is beyond my pay grade, and I suspect nobody really knows
This makes me think of something. Can’t we look at what people who experienced windfall gains spent their newfound money on? Looking into lottery winners seems like an easy enough to obtain sample, although not unproblematic—it takes a certain kind of person to participate in a lottery in the first place. But if we can break that sample down by some demographic factors—maybe cultural factors, or education level, or something like that—maybe there can be some emergent pattern that tells us how many of those people and which will go “fish”, or use that money to propel themselves out of the poverty trap, or blow it on frivolous spending.
Another one I heard recently is re-enlistment bonuses in the US military. Soldiers can get up to around $100,000 for signing up for another tour of duty. They’re apparently notorious for blowing it on stupid shit almost immediately. But maybe that’s just the vivid stories. I’d like to see empirical data before I made up my mind.
This makes me think of something. Can’t we look at what people who experienced windfall gains spent their newfound money on? Looking into lottery winners seems like an easy enough to obtain sample, although not unproblematic—it takes a certain kind of person to participate in a lottery in the first place. But if we can break that sample down by some demographic factors—maybe cultural factors, or education level, or something like that—maybe there can be some emergent pattern that tells us how many of those people and which will go “fish”, or use that money to propel themselves out of the poverty trap, or blow it on frivolous spending.
Another one I heard recently is re-enlistment bonuses in the US military. Soldiers can get up to around $100,000 for signing up for another tour of duty. They’re apparently notorious for blowing it on stupid shit almost immediately. But maybe that’s just the vivid stories. I’d like to see empirical data before I made up my mind.